Flexible displays are an important direction in displaying technologies fields. Different from conventional rigid screen displays, exclusive flexible glass substrate and flexible package technology of flexible display technologies provide a flexible display device with unique characteristics of super thinness, extra lightness, deformability, and carrying ease. However, during manufacturing, because of the unique characteristics of the flexible glass substrate, processing a device on a surface of a single flexible glass substrate causes issues of deformation, crumple, and displacement of the substrate. Therefore, such display apparatuses, in a conventional manufacturing process, generally use a glass substrate as a rigid supporting substrate. A polymer film, serving as a flexible substrate, is coated on the rigid substrate. A flexible display screen is made by sequentially adopting manufacturing processes. Finally, a completely manufactured flexible glass substrate is separated from a glass. Conventional cutting technologies applied to flexible display device cutting processes are divided in two main categories including wheel cutter cutting and laser cutting.
Wheel cutter cutting is a brittle material processing method commonly used in industrial manufacturing, and is extensively used in production of LCD rigid screen display devices. When cutting a substrate covered with flexible material, a wheel cutter needs to completely cut the flexible material layer first. After a cutting portion of the wheel cutter contacts and presses in the rigid glass substrate, the entire glass substrate can be cut. However, compared to brittle material such as glass, the flexible material is a polymer organic material, and scraps of the flexible material have viscosity. When the wheel cutter with teeth cuts across the flexible layer, the flexible material scraps generated thereby have viscosity and are adhered on portions among teeth and on the teeth of the wheel cutter. Long-term accumulation of the flexible material scraps can cause decreased cutting performance of the wheel cutter. Such scrap accumulation issue also brings instability for the wheel cutter to cut the flexible glass substrate.
Laser cutting belongs to thermal cutting methods, and the principle thereof is employing focused laser beam of high power density to irradiate the material to be cut such that the material is instantly melted, vaporized or burned and etched to form a hollow. With the movement of the laser beam relative to the material, hollows are formed continuously to form a cutting slit with a very narrow width such that cutting material is achieved. A primary wavelength absorbed by the flexible material is different from that absorbed by the glass substrate, and a maximum absorbed wavelength of the flexible material is mainly in an ultraviolet (UV) light area while a maximum absorbed wavelength of the glass substrate is mainly in an infrared light area. Therefore, in the current stage a cutting process using laser to cut flexible glass substrates needs to dispose two different laser generating devices. Because laser cutting has shortages such as expensive apparatuses, complicated processes and maintenance, heat affected zones, and ash remaining on ablated flexible layer, there is still a lot of work needs to be done in laser cutting for mass production of flexible panels.
As described above, the conventional wheel cutter for cutting a flexible glass substrate has the issue of flexible material scraps easily stuck among teeth of the wheel cutter to cause reduced cutting performance such that instability is brought to the wheel cutter cutting the flexible glass substrate. Because laser cutting has disadvantages such as using expensive apparatuses, complicated processes and maintenance, heat affected zones, and ash remaining on ablated flexible layer, there is still a lot of work needs to be done in laser cutting for mass production of flexible panels.